Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Campaign launched to reform the Ellis Act

California's Ellis Act is out of control. When the Ellis Act was adopted, proponents claimed it would rarely be used to evict tenants. For ten years, that was true. But then real estate speculators starting abusing the Ellis Act to turn a quick profit by evicting long-term tenants and selling the units. Ellis Act evictions are now surging. In San Francisco and Los Angeles in particular, thousands of rent-controlled tenants are being displaced by Ellis Act evictions. The stories are heartbreaking, including a recent high-profile case of seniors and a disabled adult daughter who were thrown out of their long-term Chinatown home by a serial evictor. Click here for more information.

For months, groups in San Francisco have been fighting back against the latest surge of Ellis Act evictions. The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project (AMP), a non-profit collective housed within the San Francisco Tenants Union, just released its newest map of no-fault evictions. The numbers of no-fault evictions in San Francisco from 1997 to 2013 are stunning: 3693
due to Ellis Act, 6952 due to owner move-in, and 1121 due to demolition. Grassroots organizations like Eviction Free San Francisco have been consistently protesting unfair evictions since the summer, and now local politicians have responded positively to the call to address the crisis. The issue has received national attention. Thanks to effective organizing on the issue, the time is now to reform at the state level.

1 comment:

My friend has been living in the same building for 30 years and has a wife and an 8 year old son. They are Observant Jews as I am and one Saturday afternoon before they had guests over for lunch they came home to find a note on there door saying the owner was going to invoke the Ellis act and they would have to leave. Whats worse is that there 8 year old son saw it first. His wife began to cry with his son and my friend who is as tough as they come was visibly shaken when I saw him Saturday evening when I returned home only to find the same notice on my door. I am his friend and Neighbor. I have been living here 13 years and for 13 years I hold community Shaabat dinners for the community in Santa Monica. These new owners bought the building just 5 months ago with the intention of either Ellising the building or using the Ellis act to scare tenants out. They have offered them 25000 to sign off and leave and so far 3 have gone. 5 of us are still here and we are still not sure if they will Ellis the building or flip it and sell it for more money now that 3 apartments are vacated. The 3 who took the money have only received 5000 and are not as yet been paid anymore. This act is a loophole to eliminate rent control and must be stopped or regulated at least. Please keep me posted of any progress Jay Davies Santa Monica

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